


One Blind Ox

by Maiera



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Blind Character, Normal Life, kind of?, well...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-13 21:51:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4538739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maiera/pseuds/Maiera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Saren tended to keep to herself. She would stay near her cottage on the outskirts of Redcliffe, and the locals tended to avoid her when they could. But there's talk of a new organization, and the word is reaching even her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Saren was busy tending to her garden, quietly humming when she heard someone clear their throat. "Who is it?" She had asked without bothering to turn.

"Just little old me." She would recognize that voice from anywhere, it was  Dane, from town. He would occasionally stop by to get some vegetables in exchange for current news. "Potatoes this time?"

She had a basket washed and ready for him. "Yes, next time, there should be more. Hopefully." She sat expectantly for her stories.

"Well, I may have to wait a while before the next time I can visit. People are saying it's the end of the world, but there's not much I can do about it. No sense fussing over something beyond your control." When Dane told her stories, even the bad news would seem just a little bit calming. "There's a huge hole in the sky, and people say that it's dropping demons out of it."

 _"The Breach in the Veil. Corrupting, Catching. We don't want to go too. They can't pull us out if we're in here, with you."_ The Others were always so helpful, if she could keep them safe, why wouldn't she? _"Because the people will want to hurt you if you help us."_ Hmph. She never did like other people too much. They never used her name, they would call her 'that Ox girl' as if she wasn't even there. She made her way to stand up, and the Others had helped her get her bearings.

She looked around and wiped off her apron, as if she truly could see. "Thank you, Dane. I'll be sure to look out for any trouble." After that, she heard his footsteps fade away. She went back inside to make herself dinner as she listened to the chirping of the cicadas outside. It was her favorite part of this time of year.

The Others, however, spent the rest of the evening fretting over 'the Breach' that had appeared a few days ago, if the pulse she had felt was any indication.


	2. Chapter 2

The Others were being awfully taklative today. Saren found herself being drowned out amongst the Others.  _"Haven, Sanctuary, We must go, Saren! If we go to the Haven, our kin cannot harm you."_

But she liked it here in her little cottage. She knew where things were without depending on the Others, and she didn't have to fear the templars in the wilds.

_"The templars are red. Corrupt, Decaying, Wrong. You must flee!"_

They did seem a bit on edge... Perhaps she should listen to them. She sighs in resignation, "Fine. I suppose if you're so adamant about this, I can humor you." She got up from her rocking chair with a huff and made her way to the back of the cottage.

She had to feel around a little, but eventually she had found her pack. She had always kept in supplied in case she ever needed to flee. She supposed now would be one of those times.

Saren let the Others take over as she walked down the road, until she heard a warped cracking noise and she could feel the shift in the Veil. 

She only paniced for a split second, but the Others had shown her where the enemy lay, and she felt the electricity shoot up her arm. She only needed a second to build it up before she had sent a few bolts towards the demons. 

Within twenty minutes, she had beaten the demons.  _"Pulling and Pushing until the Pushing becomes Twisting. They were scared."_  

The rest of the trek was mostly uneventful, besides the stray Shade or two. But once she had reached wherever it was the Others were leading her, she was ready to find the nearest bed and pass out.

A man had stopped her before she could, though. "E-excuse me, miss? Are you here as a refugee or a recruit?" He sounded scared and tiny. The Others had helped her and upon inspecting the helpful outline, she found he was an elf.

"I am Saren. I suppose I am here as a recruit if you take mages." She gives the boy a curt bow and waits for him to say anything in response. 

"Yes, well, we must have you checked by the Lady Nightingale and Commander Rutherford if you are to be fighting, but for now we can get you set up with the refugees?" He starts to walk and expects her to follow, but she knows better.

"Ser? I-I can't see." She tries to sound as non-threatening as possible, but people tend to be afraid of her by default.

"Well maybe if you opened your eyes, you could-"

She had cut him off. "No, ser. I can't  _see._ " She holds out her hand to accentuate her statement.

"Oh! Sorry... Don't I sound like a proper fool now? Erm. Sorry." He grabs her hand and leads her towards a crowded area, she can hear the cacophony of people. It has been so long since she had been near so many people.

Everyone had avoided her as if she would roast them alive. She could, but that wasn't the point. She didn't see anyone until a few hours later, when a hooded human girl had approached her.

The lady cleared her throat to announce her presence. Saren had sensed her before, but she waited until then to acknowledge the lady. "I am sister Leliana. Would you mind telling me a little about yourself? It is strange to find a qunari amongst pilgrims."

She tries to look contemplative, while the Others tell her thoughts.  _"The Nightingale, singing in the night, with no one left to hear the tune. 'If He does not save his most faithful, what good is He?' Broken, Bitter, Abandoned. Her Hero had left her alone."_ So this Leliana was also Lady Nightingale. This was an interrogation. 

"I am certain it would be. However, I am tal-vashoth. You have no need to fear conversion or behedding. I was a simple farmer before all this mess had begun." She had to tell the truth, but she would also need to be guarded, she couldn't trust these people yet.

The Lady had given a light-hearted laugh to that. "Good, this is afterall, a town of the faithful. So what brings you here... miss...?"

She gives an amiable smile. "Adaar. Saren Adaar. I was told this was the safest place to be." The Others had mentioned something about a herald, a savior? "Afterall, you have the only hope for this to end." She was bluffing. She couldn't very well mention the Others, they would see her as a monster. Even more so.

"Yes, the Herald does seem to be an odd one, there are rumors she's from a wholly different world, did you hear?"

No, she hadn't heard. If this was someone important, it was likely she would be gauging public knowlege. "Pfft. Haven't heard that one, no. What an odd rumor! Well, I suppose being otherworldly would help being the leader... At least, being seen as such." She looked as if she was contemplating. 

"Yes, imagine the possibilities, though!" She sounded a little too excited.

An elven man had approached with his head leaning to the side. "Leliana, must you interrogate every misfit you see? Elven apostates, skittish young girls, and now a qunari woman on top of all that?"

The Others were practically yelling at me at his presence. _"Harellan, the Betrayer! Do not be fooled, do not trust the Wolf. Do not trust the Wolf!"_ They had continued like that through the rest of their exchange. Saren couldn't concentrate, so she ended up missing the remainder of their conversation. 

She felt a cold hand on her shoulder and leapt back through reflex. She had gasped for air, and the elf had furrowed his brow. "Don't. Touch. Me."

"Apologies, but you had seemed worried. Are you alright?" Well, he seemed genuinely sorry.

"It's alright. Just, please. No touching." 

"Very well, then. I apologise for earlier as well, Lady Nightingale simply cannot stand not knowing everyone and everything... But, I see I have the company of a fellow apostate?"

"Yes. At least they didn't throw me into a Circle. I had assumed it was because I was simply intimidating, but if they also let an elf in, perhaps I was wrong."

And so, we had spent the next hour sharing stories on magic, and eventually got to the topic of the Fade and its residents. "There seems to be an unnecessary stigma around spirits, even most mages I know are frightened of them."

That had snapped her out of the lull. "Ah, I had thought I was the only one! At last, a fellow emphasizer." At this point her smile was becoming more and more genuine.

Until a human girl had stormed in. She was shouting something in another language. The girl hadn't even noticed Saren until her rant was done. "Oh! Erm... Danielle." She had said it as a declaration. Her name? She had said something else, same language, but much more calm.

"This would be the Herald. She welcomes you to the Inquisition." The elf had apparently become the translator.

"Well, she certainly is very lively. Tell her I said thank you." The two had started their own conversation, and Saren could take a hint. She left the cabin and headed towards her tent.

At the very least, this would turn out to be an adventure.


	3. Chapter 3

She was being shadowed. She had sensed the girl's presence two days ago, and while she didn't make it obvious, it was clear that she was following Saren. She was silent, to her credit, but Saren had the help of the Others. She didn't need to see, they did so for her.

Saren couldn't do anything about it until the girl slipped up, though. It would be rather telling if the blind girl turned around to face the silent shadow. Instead, she had gone about her business. Meditate, practice magic, roam around, rinse and repeat.

No one had even attempted warming up to the 'useless ox' besides that elven man that got the Others in a tizzy. And Saren was steering clear of him until she knew why.

So, she headed to the tavern for some old fashioned eavesdropping.

"Did you hear? That Herald only ever speaks Elvish, wonder what tha's about?" So that was the strange language.

"I heard she was raised by those Dalish folk. Savages, the lot of them." Ah, racism. This was why she tried to avoid people.

"Not as bad as that ox girl they let in." The first one had lowered his voice.

"You daft tit, she's righ' there!" This was a harsh whisper.

So, to cause trouble, she sat down at their table with a thunk and a smirk. "Hey, boys. How's it goin'?" She could be mischievous too.

"Fine. What're you doing over here?" The Others had sounded his thoughts.  _"Fool ox. Can't even see, but she had to choose this table..."_

"Oh, nothing in particular. But, while I'm here..." She had opened her eyes, most people always found it unsettling. "The blind can hear better. I can hear you, assholes. Next time, at least make sure the object of your racism isn't in the room." She had let some of her energy go into small sparks around her arms for effect.

After that spectacle, she had simply left the tavern. Then the foreigner from before, the Herald, had ran past with a heavy scent of elfroot. She was closely followed by... about 8 nugs. Saren sighed, a land of misfits indeed.


	4. Chapter 4

All in all, Saren found most of the people here in the so-called 'Haven' to be quite rude. If it wasn't racism, it would be complaints about how she was 'dead weight' to the Inquisition.  _"The prophetic puppet. She knows of the strings, but doesn't quite see them. Images of so many others, the same person, but different. She wants to be like them, not like her."_

Saren had found out quite a bit through the Others. Before, when she was in the wilderness, not too many people ever came by. She found these snippets of information useful, once she could decode them. For instance, the puppet would generally refer to the Herald everyone seemed abuzz about. After seeing her being chased by a druffalo, the holiness factor went down. Very far.

 _"She doesn't want to be holy, she wants to be heroic. Fleeting fears, too slippery to ever hold on to. He could end the world, but she takes solace that He hasn't yet. He won't, He won't, He won't."_ From what Saren could gather, the Herald knew more than she would let on to anyone. But it's hard to get a read for someone you only ever meet in passing.

"Miss? Miss Adaar, right?" One of the scouts, judging by that strange hood they all wear. She turns around, slightly perking her ear.

"Yes? Am I needed?" Finally? She's mainly been drifting from odd job to odd job, since either employers find her useless or 'bad for business'.

"Yes, ser. The Herald asked for you and several others by name to meet in the Chantry." Well, that's rather odd.

"Very well, could you tell me where I should be headed, then? I've yet to learn the layout, it's a rather big town." Well, for her standards anyways.

"Er, of course. Follow that road there and you should run straight into it- well, hopefully you won't actually run into the bui- never mind."

She gave a friendly chuckle. "Of course, ser. Thank you."

The road had taken her to the Chantry. Didn't they have the strategy room in the back somewhere? She had roamed room to room, until she was stopped by a girl with a rather strange accent. Almost Ferelden, but not quite. "Adaar, right?"

"Yes, ma'am. Why would you have need of me?" There was also a dwarf and an elf in the room with us.

"Hm... So no Trevelyan, then? Nevermind. I need your stories. Lavellan, I can tell by the markings you're dalish, and Cadash, judging by your lack of nervous glances up, most likely a surface dwarf. But beyond that, I want to know more about you three."

The elven girl had spoken up. "Why would you need to know about us? I'm just here as an envoy for the clan."

"Because there were circumstances that could have led all three of you to have been killed. By all reasoning, you should have. I want to know why you weren't all at the Conclave." That was the meeting between mages and the templars. Why would she need to be there?

The dwarven man sounded to be rather defensive. "Look, I didn't know it was going to explode, I had just left the temple to catch up with some customers in the area."

The Herald had let out a laugh. "Oh, no. Don't misunderstand. I know none of you are responsible, but still. Somehow, four people survived, and only one of us was actually there for the blast. If I can just know why it wasn't one of you who got this thing on my hand instead of me, that'll be enough."

Saren had pointed out with furrowed brows, "Miss, I wasn't at the Conclave. I was at home."

_"The story has already changed? Not good, have I messed things up already? My joker, gone out the window?"_

"Well, that's rather odd... I had heard there was an Adaar was present at the Conclave..."

"My family had left me behind, yes. It is very possible there was an Adaar there. The surname is a common one, as well. Even the Tal-Vashoth are not the most creative about naming, miss."

She gave a small hum, as if contemplating and accepting her answer. "And what about you, Lavellan? Where were you?"

The elf had stated rather proudly, "I was out hunting. Caught a druffalo." In a hushed tone she added a "More than you could do, apparently."

The Herald was coughing. No, trying to hide a laugh. "Yes, I should very much think so! To be fair, my goal wasn't to kill the poor thing."

"Then what could you have been attempting?"

After a short pause, the Herald had piped up again. "I was trying to ride it."

The dwarf had stopped his brooding for a short time. Just enough to snort. "You really thought that would work?"

"A girl can hope! And before you go. Since you all narrowly escaped certain doom, let me know if there's anything in particular you would like to do here. Any jobs you would like. And please, inform me or the ambassador if anybody calls you any slurs. The last thing any new organization needs is to have racism among the ranks." She lets out a huff. Had she been trying to root it all out on her own? Perhaps this Herald isn't so naive after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone needs a visual to how Saren sees things, think of Toph from AtLA, vague shapes, but no colors.


End file.
